BOOKWORMS across Mid Devon met authors and dressed as their favourite characters to mark a day celebrating reading.

Several schools across the district staged World Book Day events on Thursday.

Heathcoat Primary School, in Tiverton, hosted a visit from emerging author Ellen Renner, who read from her book, Castle of Shadows. She spent the whole day at the school and was joined by staff from Waterstones in helping pupils make their own books.

At St John's RC Primary School in Tiverton, a host of characters turned up, ranging from old favourites like Postman Pat to more modern creations such as Spongebob Squarepants.

The children paid £1 each to dress as their favourite characters, with all proceeds going to the charity Book Aid International.

At Bolham Primary School children were also dressing up, this time as insects.

Blundell's Prep School got in on the act with a host of literary activities. Beverley Stone, from the school, said: "We decided to focus on the opening of stories. We had a competition for children to write their own opening to a story, in any style or genre and the children have been working hard to perfect their entries.

"To get children thinking about what makes for an attention-grabbing opening, we also asked the children to vote for what their favourite opening part of a book is. We also held a book quiz."

Each year group at Willowbank Primary School in Cullompton adopted a different children's classic as the theme for their weird and wonderful costumes.

For the foundation and Year 1, it was the Wizard of Oz, while Year 2 concentrated on Alice in Wonderland. The Jungle Book was the choice of Years 3 and 4 while youngsters from Years 5 and 6 dressed up as the oompa-loompas and other characters from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Under-fives sang nursery rhymes and played with musical instruments like rainmakers and bells, during their regular Thursday morning sessions at Tiverton Library.

World Book Day was marked at Queen Elizabeth's Community College in Crediton with what was termed a 'Whole School Read'.

A nonsense poem was read aloud at the beginning of every lesson.

The next day, a quiz with prizes was held to check students' knowledge of the poems.

School librarian and event organiser Robert Logan said: "Students really impressed us with their enthusiasm, both to hear the featured poems, and participate in the quiz.

"They learned a lot and it was great to see so many students getting actively involved."